Energy choices may play role in future hazards

By Cynthia McCormickCape Cod Times

Friday

Dec 18, 2015 at 2:01 AM

Climate change could be creating or exacerbating health problems in southern New England and around the world, according to the associate director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Climate change is not just about property values.

It poses a major health threat to millions of people all over the world, including residents of southern New England, according to Dr. Aaron Bernstein, a pediatrician and associate director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Increased droughts are causing wildfires that pollute the air and threaten to raise the number of deaths from heart attack and stroke, Bernstein said.

Rising sea levels pose a risk to the integrity of drinking water wells and exacerbate storm surges that flood roads and prevent cars and ambulances from reaching hospitals, he said.

Alternating cycles of flood and drought cause food shortages, Bernstein said. Rising carbon dioxide not only aggravates asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to potentially deadly levels but also increases the misery of allergy sufferers with longer growing seasons for plants such as ragweed.

“Climate change is a major risk to the health of all people. When we choose energy sources, we rarely discuss the health dimensions of those choices," Bernstein said. But "as a pediatrician I’m interested in keeping kids healthy.”

Thanks to the federal Clean Air Act, outdoor air quality is cleaner than it has been in decades, said Bernstein, who spends part of his time treating children with asthma and other lung conditions at Boston Children's Hospital.

But climate changes threaten to reverse the gains, he said.

The burning of fossil fuels increases levels of smog or ground-level ozone, which, when inhaled, damages the lungs, Bernstein said.

Particulate matter from forest fires in drought-ravaged parts of Canada is carried on air currents to the New England states, where the finest particles can seep deeply into the linings of lungs and the circulatory systems of people who breathe them.

"It's not just a problem in California," Bernstein said.

Studies have shown a decrease in mortality from cardiovascular and respiratory problems in Ireland and Utah when emissions of particulate matter were reduced because of a coal ban and a smelting mill strike.

“It became very clear people who are exposed to more outdoor air pollution are more likely to die," Bernstein said. "These are preventable deaths."

MOLD, CROPS AND DRINKING WATER

Reducing reliance on coal — a producer of particulate matter — and oil and gas, which contribute to ozone pollution, could prevent tens of thousands of deaths a year, Bernstein said. He said moving away from carbon sources of energy is "a win-win."

Rising sea levels won't just destroy property on the coastline, Bernstein said. Higher storm surges threaten to contribute to mold blooms, the disruption of transportation and the flooding of crops.

In Bangladesh, rising sea levels already have allowed salt water to contaminate freshwater wells, leading to higher blood pressure levels in pregnant women because of increased sodium intake, Bernstein said.

In years to come, Cape Cod — with its sole-source aquifer — may have to take steps to protect the water supply from similar infiltration, he said. “I would want to think about that,” Bernstein said.

While warming trends mean that food is being grown farther north than ever, the climate change cycle of drought alternating with floods does not bode well for crops, Bernstein said. He said increased levels of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels are stripping essential crops of rice, soy and wheat of proteins and micronutrients such as vitamin A.

“This is a tremendous global effect on people’s health from lost nutrition.”

WEEDS, ALLERGENS AND TICKS

But weeds could proliferate — and with it their allergens.

Ragweed — the major trigger for autumnal episodes of hay fever — grows faster and produces more pollen and allergens with increased carbon dioxide, according to a report by the Asthma and Allergy Federation of America and the National Wildlife Federation.

"Longer growing season under a warmer climate allows for bigger ragweed plants that produce more pollen later into the fall," according to their report, "Confronting Global Warming."

Spring and summer miseries also could be compounded, with allergy-inducing oaks expanding their habitats and poison ivy growing faster and more toxic.

“This is not good news for people suffering from seasonal allergies," Bernstein said

And there is evidence that warming trends could help pests get peskier.

Distribution maps show that lone star ticks are moving north to Cape Cod and beyond, and deer ticks already prevalent across southern New England, "are being found as far north now as southern Ontario and Quebec," said Larry Dapsis, entomologist with the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension Service.

Dapsis said he doesn't know if the northward march of the disease-bearing arthropods is linked to climate change, but "a lot of people are linking the two."

Disasters such as floods and forest fires lead to post-traumatic stress and anxiety in some people, particularly in children, he said.

Droughts that turn fertile lands into dust bowls inspire mass migrations that play havoc with the social order and people's mental health, he said. “We increase the likelihood of conflict and people moving.”

Turning away from carbon-producing energy sources will help limit the impact of climate change, Bernstein said. But he said that won't happen until there is a way to move people whose livelihoods depend on a fossil fuel economy into new careers.

"That has to be part of the solution," he said.

— Email Cynthia McCormick at cmccormick@capecodonline.com and follow her on Twitter: @CmcormickCCT.

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